Working with Doris Humphrey

Abstract

Doris Humphrey played no part in my training or my early career. I never had a modem-dance class in my life, and the term choreography course was unknown to me. My dance background was eclectic: ballet with Michel Fokine, Spanish with Angel Cansino, neo-Oriental with Michio Ito, and a season of joint recitals with Yeichi Nimura. All of these styles, as well as the influence of seeing Mary Wigman, Herald Kreutzberg, and Yvonne Georgi, had become synthesized into a personal approach that belonged to no school. I had fifteen years Qf working alone with no one to advise me. After performing in the United States and the Near East, and, in 1934, being the first American dancer officially invited to the Soviet Union since Isadora Duncan, I was happy to continue. But a traumatic experience in New York suddenly soured me. In 1939 I decided to leave the concert stage and explore other fields. It took seven years for me to realize that I found no other form of dance fulfilling. In 1946 I was at a dead end. I felt shriveled after an escape into commercial dance, including a year of television. I felt the inner need to do what I really